Be brilliant, play clever, and become versed in craps the ideal way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French headed down south and discovered refuge in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the modern craps setup. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he invented the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
